The ferry lands in Picton and we rolled right off and into a budget but super friendly motel a couple of blocks away. Picton turned out to be a delightful little town with a very nice waterfront. We had planned to take a steamship out to a nature preserve island in the bay in the morning, but when we walked …

Slow start today as we were doing mundane stuff like laundry but we also needed to let the skies clear a bit as well. Our plan was to ride another section of the Tasman Great Taste trail and start from or close to the bach. With some varying opinions from our hosts on road vs. trail we started with the …

      Tuesday Oct 2 We headed off for Bleinheim (blenum), in the heart of the Marlborough wine country, today. We do night before planning for the transit days, looking for interesting places to stop along the way and then just take it as it comes. That works out pretty well in New Zealand as there are so many …

Thursday, October 4th We are right in the heart of the Marlborough wine region which is especially well known for its Sauvignon Blancs but also produces Chardonnays, Reislings and Pinot Noirs among others. Tom mapped out a 25 mile ride for us that would travel through a very dense winery area with many cellar doors. Flat as can be here …

Kaikoura, our destination for today, suffered a magnitude 7.8 earthquake in 2016. With ruptures occuring along many faults it has been described as one of the most complex earthquakes ever studied (direct from wikipedia so it must be true). The damage cut off all land routes into Kaikoura as well as the rail line. They are still rebuilding so the …

Sunday, October 7th: The Alpine-Pacific Holiday Park in Kaikoura is sited between some very Alpine-looking mountains and the Pacific Ocean which is just across the road from the entrance to the park. This is the view from the front step of our cabin/trailer. After a really nice breakfast in town we went to the Whale Watch Kaikoura office where we …

We had a beautiful day for crossing the Southern Alps on our drive to the West Coast. As we left chch and started to climb the landscape turned barren and rocky with many shades of brown, orange, and gold. There were few opportunities to pull off so pictures are limited from the climb. The road was better than most but …

Cloudy morning but not yet raining hard so we got out reasonably early and drove to the Hokitika Gorge. This was our first glimpse on the walk out to the gorge Best views are from the swing bridge. They sure have a lot of swing bridges in NZ. I am not a fan but the views are enticing enough to …

 It was cloudy and drizzly as we left our very wet, cold, and windy stay in Hokitika heading south to the glaciers in Westland Tai Poutini National Park. We were hopeful as the rain was heading north and we occasionally saw signs of clearing but we also started to experience the effects of the “Southerlies”. I was glad that …

Sunday, October 14th We headed out of Wanaka (which we discovered is pronounced Wan’-uh-kah). The drive over Lindis pass to Aoraki/Mount Cook was gorgeous. Here are some highlights We are staying in the Hermitage hotel, nestled right in the mountains We have a balcony and it feels like we can practically reach out and touch Aoraki. We went for a …